EU-Tunisia: enhanced partnership and more EU support for Tunisia’s democratic transition
September 29, 2016
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The European Commission and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini call for “strengthened EU support for Tunisia” in a joint Communication adopted today.
The Joint Communication, which reaffirms the EU’s commitment to Tunisia’s democratic transition, sets out a number of measures that the EU could take collectively to enhance its support for Tunisia’s efforts to address the critical challenges that the country is facing and promote long-term stability, resilience, good governance, socio-economic development, and security in the country.
This comes in addition to a planned financial envelope of up to EUR 300 million for 2017, which would be a substantial increase in EU assistance to Tunisia of the past two years, notably in the areas of financial support, macro financial assistance, but also in the fields of cooperation, trade, education, research, counter-terrorism and industry.
High Representative Federica Mogherini said: “As the European Union, we are, and we have always been, at the side of the Tunisian people, and of young people most of all, determined to strengthen their democracy and the economic growth of the country… We are doing this with our Joint Communication that includes very concrete actions that will better accompany Tunisians and Tunisia in the implementation of the reforms they have set themselves.”
Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for the European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations said: “The EU is offering expertise and a wide range of incentives to dynamise the economy and create opportunities for a young population which is among the highest educated but most under-employed”. (EU Neighbourhood Info)